The invention relates to a method of manufacturing a layered magnetic head having a head face and comprising an inductive transducing system, in which method a non-magnetic, insulating material is deposited for forming a first insulation layer on which an inductive transducing element is formed, whereafter a non-magnetic, insulating material for forming a second insulation layer is deposited on the first insulation layer and the inductive transducing element formed thereon, whereafter a magnetic flux guide bounding a nonmagnetic gap layer is formed, whereafter the head face is formed, whereby the flux guide and the gap layer terminate in the head face.
The invention also relates to a thin-film magnetic head having a head face and comprising an inductive transducing system.
A method and a magnetic head of this type are known from EP-A 0 617 409. For forming an inductive transducing system, the known method starts from a polished base of ferrite having a plane basic surface. A first insulation layer of quartz is provided on the basic surface by means of, for example PE CVD, which quartz insulation layer is subsequently provided with an electrically conducting layer. This layer is structured to form turns of an inductive element. Subsequently, quartz is deposited for forming a second insulation layer, and a through-connection aperture is etched in said two insulation layers in an area removed from a head face to be formed at a later stage. Subsequently, a relatively thick third quartz insulation layer is provided. The assembly of layers jointly constitutes a thick insulation layer of a non-magnetic material. A structured layer of a mask material is formed on this layer. With the structured layer as a mask, the thick insulation layer is subsequently sputter-etched for forming a recess which extends as far as the base via the through-connection aperture. After sputtering, the remaining parts of the structured layer are removed by wet-chemical etching. A soft-magnetic layer is provided on the structured thick insulation layer obtained, while the recess is filled. The soft-magnetic layer is used for forming a flux guide. The soft-magnetic layer and the adjoining thick insulation layer are polished for creating a plane surface. An insulation layer is provided on this surface, whereafter a magnetoresistive transducing system is formed.
A drawback of the known method is that the flux guide is formed on a non-planarized surface, so that parts of the flux guide will extend between turns of the inductive element, which has a detrimental influence on the efficiency of the inductive transducing system. Moreover, the known method does not allow any freedom of choice of the distance between the basic surface and the soft-magnetic layer, because the distance is entirely determined by the thickness of the insulation layers provided to form the gap length.